Bits and Parts
by Hollow Wolfe
Summary: Creepy One-Shot. The twins' love for Alice has grown into a little more than an obsession...


It's quite an amazing phenomenon that the human brain, with no effort whatsoever, can discern what aspects of their environment are necessary to know and remember, and what details can be thrown away like papers or an old toy. The brain does it instantly, subconsciously, allowing someone to find a linear pattern underneath the chaos of daily life. It is a defense mechanism, way of survival. Still, through our self-induced tunnel vision, we miss the most obvious things in our peripheral. This considered, Alice could hardly be blamed for her obliviousness. She had so many things to cope with, being such a fish out of water- poor child- that inevitably some things would slip under the radar. In fact, she didn't know anything was going on until she discovered all the hair was missing from her hairbrush.

If there was any sort of equivalent in the country of Hearts, it was a Monday morning. As the bristles grated against her scalp, she felt the strange sensation that they were sharper than normal. Furrowing her brow, she paused her routine and stared into the face of the brush.

It was as clean as when she was given it. There were one or two stray hairs left, but something had definitely happened to the blonde pelt it normally contained. It was so subtle, yet just barely strange enough for Alice to take notice. "Julius?" she called from her room.

His voice echoed down the halls in response. "What is it, Alice?"

"Did you... Clean my hairbrush?" The moment the words left her mouth, she realized how stupid they sounded.

Julius didn't respond for a moment. "No, Alice, I have no idea what you mean."

"All the hair is gone from it."

"Fascinating," he said. "If you're up, you might as well make some coffee for the both of us."

The girl nodded and set the brush down on the table. Maybe she had cleaned it herself and simply forgot about it; that had to be the reason. She reached into a drawer to finish getting dressed, tying a bow in her hair before wandering into the kitchen. As she spooned the ground coffee into the filter, she tried to retrace her steps from the night before. Nothing. She had no recollection of cleaning the brush.

"Alice? Are you quite done with the coffee?"

"Yes! Sorry!" Alice snapped back to reality and began filtering the coffee. "Uh, it'll be done in a few minutes!"

A faint sigh echoed from the other room. "Alright."

She was distracted. She needed to stop worrying about it. _It's not affecting me,_ she reasoned, _so it doesn't matter._ With that, she decided to forget about her stupid hairbrush.

A few minutes later, Alice sauntered into the room with two fresh cups of coffee. "Here you go," she offered, placing one on the table beside her host.

"I think I finally got it right."

The clockmaker gave her a look and took a sip. "It's better," he muttered. "Not perfect, but you're getting there."

Alice was in no mood to argue. "Alright."

The two sat in silence for a moment, a space in time typically filled with morning small talk, but the windows to the outside had suddenly switched to mid-afternoon. Who caused the change and why could only be speculated. Alice took a sip from her mug- Julius was right, it was far from perfect; he was probably just being nice- and drummed her fingers on the table. "Have you seen my shoes anywhere?"

"Your what?" Julius asked.

"My shoes." she held up her feet beside the table, as if to show they were missing. "They vanished a few days ago. Boris gave me another pair and all about a week ago, but I still want to find them."

"Boris gave you shoes?"

"Sneakers, better for walking. But I like my old ones. Sneakers make my feet look huge."

Julius shrugged and shook his head, saying he'd keep an eye out. Alice grinned and bade him a quiet goodbye before squeaking out the door in her new rubber soles. She wandered towards Blood's house, excited to see him, though she would hardly admit it to passerby. As she knew well enough, lips may lie, but wandering feet with a wandering heart spoke only one sentence.

She reached the iron gate and peered through the bars into the yard. "Blood?" she called tentatively. "Dee? Dum?" No response besides a weak echo. Alice folded her arms and took a step back, eyeing the gate. "I know you're in there..." she muttered. She slipped her skinny arm between the bars, calculating if she could fit. With some discomfort, she managed to wedge herself through, and there she was on the other side. Blood would most likely be off in his garden with Vivaldi. Would he mind so much if she helped herself to his library? With a smirk tugging at her lips, she made her way to the front door.

"Big sis!" One of the gatekeepers called. Alice whipped around to see Dee and Dum barreling towards her. "You're here! You're here!"

"Yeah, I am!" she chuckled as they reached her and gave her an aggressive hug. "I just came to see Blood, is he here by any ch-"

"He's out," they blurted in unison. "You can come play with us until he gets back, though!" They each took a light hold of her wrist and tugged her along. "C'mon, big sis! We made something! Come see!"

Alice supposed she had nothing better to do to pass the time. She reluctantly let them guide her to their bedroom, where the walls were still covered in weapons. She gulped, recalling her previous visit.

The twins released her and glanced at each other, the type of foolish grin that indicates when two children have been up to something for a while. They slowly maneuvered around the furniture towards a large object covered with a tarp.

"What is that?" Alice asked curiously. This hadn't been in the room on her last visit, and it was too large to be another weapon.

The two glanced at each other again and yanked the fabric away. "This," Dee announced, followed by Dum, "Is our creation!"

It was hideous. It was a large, almost life-sized doll sitting crookedly in a chair. It was haphazardly thrown together with staples, tape, glue, and on occasion needle and thread, but some of the body parts were too realistic. The body was covered in a bloodstained dress, which had a clear axe-gash in the waist. On its feet we're her shoes, and taped to its skull was a tangled mass of blonde hair...

"You see," Dum explained before Alice could respond. "We really really really like you, big sis. We want you to be with us forever..."

"...But you don't like us in the same way!" Dee cried. "So we made another you, one that won't ever leave... CAN'T ever leave!" He smiled as if he stood in front of a little clay sculpture, not a shine of stolen body parts.

"We tried to get parts from people who looked a lot like you..." they said. "The chin is from one of the carnival workers, and the legs are actually from someone we met on the street as we were carrying the head back!" They threw back their heads and cackled innocently.

Alice's stomach churned violently. How many people had they killed? It only vaguely resembled her, and it still had no face or life in its broken and rotting body. She didn't know what to do, who to tell, she just wanted to leave. Now. "I'm leaving," she declared suddenly. "I feel like going to the carnival today, or-"

"Wait!" they shouted, grabbing her wrists more forcefully than before. Alice's heartbeat began pounding in her chest. "We need your help!"

"H-How...?" she asked weakly.

"You see, it looks a lot like you, but-"

"-There's one thing you have that nobody else does!"

"Not in your color, anyway."

"Your eyes."

"We just need those, the rest of you will be fine!"

"We picked out the sharpest knife and everything."

"We'll be quick-"

"Just sit down in that chair and-"

"NO!" Alice screamed, breaking away from them and rushing towards the door. Both their eyes narrowed as they reached for weapons off the wall. "This is sick! Disgusting! I'm not letting you have my eyes!"

"But we need them, Big Sis!" they cried together. "Come back!"

Alice was already out the door and sprinting down the hallway. She needed to get out of there, but the memory of where to run in such an expansive house was blurred in the panic. Behind her, there was a metal clattering as Dee and Dum began racing after her, knives in hand. She dashed down the nearest staircase she saw and down another hallway. "Thank goodness I wore these sneakers," she whimpered to herself. "I wouldn't have stood a chance otherwise..."

The twins were hot on her heels, their faces now void of that innocence they held before. They were on a search and destroy mission, their knives now instruments of torture rather than ornate relics. Alice remembered with a jolt that this type of chase is what they were trained for. It was what they craved.

Thanking the heavens, Alice reached the door and heaved it open, sliding through just in time to dodge a throwing knife to the ankle. They didn't want to kill her... Just disable her. She squeezed through the gate and pelted into the woods, her heart racing. At least she was out of the house. They wouldn't follow her, would they?

Another knife, this time ripping through the edge of her skirt, answered her question with a definitive "yes."

"Alice!" a voice called through the brush. A second later, she slammed her whole body into Ace.

"Ace!" she screamed in desperation and panic. "You have to help me! Dee and Dum are-"

"Hey!" he shouted, brushing Alice to the side. The twins had caught up, and now stood before him as he withdrew his sword. Still flustered, Alice whimpered and scurried into the bushes. "Stop bothering her, okay? I don't know what you did, but if it has her in this much of a panic, I won't hesitate to kill you over it."

The two looked at each other, the childlike air returning to their cheeks. "We'll have another chance," one said to the other.

"Yeah, we'll try again."

They said nothing to Ace before turning around and sauntering back to the mansion.

Alice felt a flood of relief wash over her, and shortly after a wave of emotion. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she screamed into her hands. "They... They were going to..."

"There, there," Ace whispered. "It's okay. They're gone now." He placed a gloved finger under her chin, lifting her face to meet his wide grin. "I bet you're happy for once I was lost in the woods!"

The girl let out a weak chuckle. "Yeah..."

He placed his arm around her, letting her lean on him as they walked. "Now," Ace said, "What exactly did they do?"

She spilled everything. How they built a replica of her with stolen body parts, how they stole hair from her hairbrush in the night, how they planned to cut out her eyes and attach them in who-knows-what-way. It wasn't as if she hadn't been close to death before, but this threat was so painful, so perverse... as they finally reached Ace's tent, her words slowly faded into silence.

Ace's face was contorted in disgust. "They stole..." he muttered before shaking his head. "That's sick of them to just force you like that," he agreed. "I'm so sorry they chased you."

Something about his statement felt a little off, but she brushed it aside. "I can't thank you enough," Alice sighed. "Is there anything I can do to repay you?"

Ace flashed a coy smile. "It was nothing," he said, "it's fine."

Alice took a step towards him. "I insist, I want to help you out."

The soldier paused, glancing into her eyes. "Well, if you're insisting..." he began, his mouth curling into a grin. Alice gulped, immediately regretting she pressed further. "Since you offered to help, there is a little project I've been working on..."

Alice realized with a jolt that behind Ace sat a large figure covered with a tarp.


End file.
